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EU pork exports up in 2015

Total EU pork exports grew by 11% in 2015 versus a year earlier, to 1.74 million tonnes. This was despite the Russian ban, which has been in place since early 2014.

China was the driving force behind this growth, with shipments increasing by 82% year-on-year in 2015. This helped to mitigate reduced volumes exported to the other leading Asian markets of Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, although Japanese exports did rally in the final quarter of 2015 – up 40% on a year earlier. Exports to Australia also saw strong growth in 2015, albeit still smaller in actual volumes. There were also increased sales to a wide variety of smaller markets. With unit prices only slightly lower in euro terms (although well down in US dollars due to the weak euro), the value of pork exports rose by 8% to just under €4 billion, a new record.

Pig offal exports also grew in 2015 – up 8% on a year earlier to 1.17 million tonnes. Once again, increased shipments to China helped stimulate this growth. Chinese exports were up 30% to 611,000 tonnes. Although smaller in real terms, growth was also recorded in exports to South Korea (+14%) and Cote d’Ivoire (+21%), among others. This growth was partially offset by a fall in export volumes to Hong Kong (-28%) and the Philippines (-4%).

Having fallen very sharply in 2014 in the wake of the Russian import ban, pig fat exports levelled in 2015, at 215,000 tonnes. The two largest customers in 2014, Ukraine and the Philippines, both took slightly less. However, there was strong sales growth to markets such as China, Georgia and South Korea. Nevertheless, the volume exported remained more than 40% down on 2013, before the Russian ban, and the value was 23% lower than in 2014 and little more than a third of its level in 2013.